Christie goes to the mattresses

When he visited Union City this week, Gov. Chris Christie gave his hackneyed once-over on the fact that the state legislature is wasting their time with less important issues than his reform initiatives, like foreign denture reform and venison auctions.

But on Tuesday, he picked a bill that is being pushed by the host of the town hall, Mayor and state Sen. Brian Stack (D-Union City), one that has a fairly major impact on the legions of low-income residents of the town. The town has had pocketed outbreaks of bedbugs in secondhand mattresses in recent years.

Secondhand mattresses, the governor posited, is a throw-away issue, not important enough to drain legislative time away from things like education and civil service reform.

At least one Democratic operative took aim at Christie’s gaffe. Channeling Stack himself, the operative questioned the gov’s choice of words.

“I know Christie is the best governor in New Jersey history, but it makes you wonder if Woodrow Wilson had a better advance staff.”

Stack’s bill requires that secondhand mattress, either for sale or otherwise, would have a label certifying that the mattress does not contain bedbugs. It also imposes a maximum $1,000 fine for the first offense and $2,000 for subsequent offense, in addition to other applicable penalties under current law.